Katie Mack

"Dark Matter in the Cosmic Context"

Dark matter forms the foundation for all cosmic structure, and its annihilation, decay, or other particle interactions have the potential to affect early structure formation by injecting energy into local gas. I will discuss the status of the quest to identify dark matter, major unsolved problems relevant to the abundance and structure of dark matter halos, and how dark matter annihilation energy can affect the binding of gas within the earliest cosmic structures. [Papers: arXiv: 1309.7783, 1411.3783]